1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc cartridge which is loaded into a drive device and houses a disc medium into/from which information is recorded/reproduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recording and reproducing information are carried out on disc media such as an optical disc and a magneto-optical disc in the following manner. The disc medium is rotated with being loaded into drive device, and a laser beam or both a laser beam and a magnetic field is/are emitted to a recording layer by a recording head. As a result, information is recorded by formation of pits due to fragmentation and/or raised temperature of the recording layer, a phase change, reversed magnetization, and the like. Information which is recorded is reproduced by reading a difference in reflectance and a polarizing angle of the laser beams using a reproducing head.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-242740, a disc retaining member is axially supported to a case so as to be rotatable. When a disc medium is preserved, the disc retaining member presses to hold disc medium, and when the disc medium is operated, the disc retaining member is slightly separated from the disc medium.
When a disc medium is preserved/operated, the disc retaining member covers the disc medium, so that the disc medium cannot be taken out of the case. When, however, the disc retaining member is moved rotationally (rotated) through a constant angle, the disc medium can be taken out.
When the disc medium is, however, housed in the case, quality of recording/reproducing histories of the disc medium can be maintained. For this reason, when the disc medium is taken out of the case, the quality of the disc medium is possibly not maintained. For this reason, the assurance of the quality of the disc medium differs according to whether the disc medium is taken out.